The centre must hold
by stevieLUVSAlex
Summary: I know its been done to death, but this is my POV from Booth's car conversation... the horrid one... you might even love him again after this... One-shot


_A/N: Hey… me again! I was subjecting myself to pain… AGAIN… I have this moving picture, with no sound, and it goes for about 3 seconds, and it flashes between B&B, Brennan's heart crushing at his *those horrid CAR words we don't mention* and then across to Booth, who seems to roll his eyes… well, I was determined to find something in his expression that says otherwise. AND I DID… if you look close enough you can see he is struggling to breathe… =) SWEAR IT!_

_This is MY TAKE on his point of view… with a different car ending… enjoy._

He turned his head away, rolling his eyes at her as she sat beside him in the passenger's seat, tears streaming down her face. He felt his chest tighten as he tried to breathe. It was like someone was squeezing his heart organ with their bare hands. _Bones _was crying, sobbing, like he had never seen before, a pained expression filling her entire face, something that he had caused, and he didn't even reach out and console her, as he ordinarily would.

No, not this time, this time _Bones_ was of her own, this time her pain would have to be soothed by someone else, someone whose heart wasn't crushed in the agony of watching the tears spill down her cheeks. Someone who hadn't just told her that he loved his girlfriend and that she was no consolation prize.

It hurt. As much as the pain spread across her face, it mirrored the emotions trapped in the walls of his own heart. How could he have been so blunt and cruel? One might ask. Because he loved her, he always had and he was beginning to fear that he always would. No matter how amazing Hannah Burley was, no matter how incredibly patient she was to his partnership with the Doc, his heart still remained with his partner, with _Bones_.

And that sucked.

Booth had tried aimlessly to move on as he said he would, he had tested the waters and found something suitable, of course it was nothing like the water he had once taken from that particular pool, but he had chosen another lake of water to take from. For now it had sufficed. It was enough to keep him from thinking about a life he couldn't have.

It was why he had reacted so badly. Why he felt anger instead of sadness, why he had snapped at her instead of consoling her. She had shocked him with a confession of her feelings for him, feelings he had been waiting for her to admit for six years. He was in shock, to say the least.

But he was with Hannah now… how could he just tell Hannah he wanted something else, something better? No. He wasn't going to be that guy. Bones had told him, no, she had been so clear about her feelings previously, she couldn't change, she didn't know how. It was right that he moved on, he couldn't have known that she would blurt out her feelings now… could he?

Beside him, _Bones_ managed to pull herself together quickly. If only the piercing agony in his heart would follow her lead. But it hammered at him like a tool trying to chip away the content of the little amount of broken heart that remained.

Silence lingered in the air, as he tightened his grip on the steering wheel, his eyes focused on the road ahead. He would not crumble, he would not reach out and console her, his hand would not brush the tears from her eyes, and he would not smell the sweet aroma of her shampoo. No! This time, Booth would allow her to feel some measure of the pain he had, when she rejected him the year before.

But if he felt so strongly about it, then why didn't his hands comply with his head? Fighting against himself, he managed to stretch out his hand and entwine his fingers through hers. She looked down at his hand, analyzing its meaning.

"The centre has to hold, Bones… it has to hold," he whispered.

Bones nodded.

_I know he has been a jerk all season, but I am trying desperately to find something about him that is still good. Booth is still there, burying himself behind a mask, and if I'm wrong then HH will never be able to recover from this, no matter how much time passes. Booth is still in there, I know it… does anyone share my thoughts =)_


End file.
